PERSONAL EVANGELISM
(Part 6)
Memory Verse:
“…every living soul belongs to me, …” (Ezekiel
18:4a).NIV.
LESSON
OBJECTIVES AND FOCUS
We shall be looking
at the careless and the deceived, and how to handle them.
LESSON INTRODUCTION
It would appear that
those who are careless also end up putting themselves in the position to be
deceived. Just consider the story we read in I Kings 13 a short while ago.
i.
The old prophet
deceived the young prophet. Can we guess why?
ii.
Rather than obey God
Who had spoken clearly to him, the young prophet chose to obey “the voice of an
angel” who never even spoke directly to him. Can we guess why he chose to
believe the old man?
iii.
The young prophet of
course died of the consequences of being careless, a victim of deception.
What warning is there in this
story for us?
Be
sure of what God has said on a matter so you are not deceived or misled by
anyone. The end could be disastrous.
LESSON OUTLINE 1: THE CARELESS
The careless needs to
be handled with care as we seek to get him/her to understand the truth of the
gospel. We need to let him/her
i.
See the reality of
sin, Rom. 3:23.
ii.
Know the danger of
rejecting salvation, Hebr. 2:3.
iii.
See the Lord Jesus
Christ as his/her Saviour, I Pet. 2:24.
iv.
Understand what it
means to believe in Jesus.
This includes turning to, seeking for, calling unto, receiving, tasting,
committing oneself and totally submitting one’s life to Jesus. Isa. 45:22.
It
is more than just agreeing in
our heads with Jesus’ claims to be the Son of God and our Saviour. Even the
demons believe and know that much, but they have not committed themselves to
Him. James 2:19.
v.
Confess Christ as His
own Lord and Saviour. Rom. 10:9.
LESSON OUTLINE 2: THE DECEIVED
How do we handle the deceived person?
May be we should
start by asking, What are some examples
of deception?
There are some
“Christian” groups who teach that
a. We need to add some other person to Jesus, in the form of a
co-redeemer with Him, or another mediator to link us to the Father, in the
belief we just cannot approach God the Father directly and on our own through
Jesus.
But what do these passages tell us? Jn 5:24; 14:6; Acts 10:43; 13:39; I Jn
5:13.
b. We need to add good works to our faith if we are to be
justified.
But what do we see
in Gal. 2: 15-16; Eph.2:8-10?
Do
note the challenge James posed to Christians in James 2: 17,18 & 26 is that our faith must be confirmed by lives
of good works. In order words, good works are the fruit (or the result) of our
salvation, and not the root of (or the reason for) our salvation. Look again at
Eph.2:10.
c.
The possibility of
cleansing from, or forgiveness for, our sin exists after death.
But
what does Hebr. 9:27 say?
d. There are those who select and twist the Scriptures to suit
their ends, or question the authority of the Scriptures on those issues they
take exception to.
What do we learn from 2 Pet. 1:20-21; Rev.
22:18-19?
How then do we do we handle such people?
i.
We need to acquaint
ourselves with what it is that they believe, and in the process find out how
deep they have gone.
ii.
We will then need to
use the Scriptures to show what the living God says on the areas of their
beliefs where they have derailed. But
as we learnt last week, we must strive to avoid “foolish and stupid arguments”, II Tim. 2:23-26.
iii.
Warn them of the
danger of being deceived – as we saw in the story in I Kings 13.
SUMMARY
The Lord is ready to save the
careless and the deceived if they turn to the One Who said, “…every living soul belongs to me, …” (Ezekiel 18:4a).NIV.